PTSD and memory

People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often report difficulties with learning, memory and attention and several studies have shown that participants with PTSD display poorer performance on several tests of learning and memory. However, the picture could be complicated by people's age, how old they were when they experienced their trauma, their intelligence, whether they have other mental-health difficulties and if they take illegal drugs or drugs to treat their PTSD. And there have been no studies into the links between PTSD, memory performance and how well people cope in their working and personal lives. A Dutch study compared 25 veterans with PTSD to 25 veterans without the condition. It found that the veterans with PTSD had similar IQ scores but displayed deficits in figural and logical memory, measures of learning and immediate and delayed verbal memory. The worse people's performance on the memory tests the worse was their current social and occupational functioning.

Geuze, Gilbert ... [et al] - Neuropsychological performance is related to current social and occupational functioning in veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder Depression and Anxiety January 2009, 26(1), 7-15